Posted on 02/27/2015 12:26:57 PM PST by nascarnation
Japanese motorcycle giant Yamaha will join the four-wheel market by launching small cars in Europe as early as 2019 to meet rising demand for energy-efficient vehicles, a company official said Friday.
The firm has been mulling manufacturing four-wheel vehicles for years, exhibiting a prototype 1,000 cc engine car and an electric-car battery at the 2013 Tokyo Motor Show.
Yamaha is planning to build car plants in Europe to sell them in the region before 2020, the company spokesman said, without elaborating.
"As small cars are already prevalent in Europe, our first car launch will be (there)," he said.
"But we are also studying opportunities in emerging countries" as well, he added.
(Excerpt) Read more at hindustantimes.com ...
It looks like two bucket seats and a windshield.
It’d probably be fine for tooling around European cities. Most cars there are pretty small.
Some of the 2 cycle engines they put into snowmobiles are hard to kill. Loved that I didn’t have to mix oil and gas, separate tanks for both.
Need a Diesel Pickup version
“Little puffs of blue smoke will be blowing out the tailpipe?
Or am I still stuck with 1970’s Yamaha imagery?”
Probably thinking of the RD 350-400 series two stroke twin. I had one set up as a “cafe” bike and it was a blast to ride, a real giant killer.
yamaha owner bookmark
We had a Samurai, too. Probably would still have it, except it got wrecked.
Hence the ‘propeller’ badge.
Years ago, the Ford dealership only had a Samurai available as the loaner for me to use while they fixed my POS Aerostar....I recall distincly having to sign a waiver — acknowledging that I was aware the Suzuki was a rollover hazard.
Those were cool bikes. Nice-looking, too. Very clean lines.
Now they're collectors items, along with the mid-70s Honda 400-Fours. Speaking of the small Honda Fours, someone here in Boise sold a 350-Four on Craigslist a few years ago for a list price of $350. It was gone in about 60 seconds. I don't think they knew what they had.
That ‘rollover hazard’ thing was actually vastly exaggerated, and driven by US manufacturers who couldn’t compete with Suzuki’s price point..
In reality, it was no worse than say, a Jeep CJ....
When I crashed mine, it probably would have happened in anything short of a mid engine sports car.
Yeah as you get to that envelope size, everything pretty much has to assume a similar shape I think. Rolling phone booth (LOL I wonder if anybody under 30 even knows what a “phone booth” is anymore?)
Yamaha is Japanese - SMART is German.
Yamaha vs. Mercedes Benz.
Both make superb cars.
Worst POS gasoline engine I ever had was a Yamaha generator.
It got harder and harder to start (bad form when you use it to run a computerized telescope in the mountains).
Some sidewalk surfer snatched it as I was unloading from an astronomy run (where it finally refused to run).
Kharma, you thieving asshole!!
I’ve still got my ‘79 XS-11.
After the war, BMW survived by making pots, pans, and bicycles until 1948, when it restarted motorcycle production.
I looked at one when they showed up in the 80s. I remember it had a tilt gauge on the dash with a ball that would show how far you were leaning. I was too long and tall for it but my friend liked it. He was a farmer and needed a 3/4 ton more, though.
They must have added those later, as a response to the campaign. My 86 doesn’t have one... I thought about adding an aftermarket one, but decided that ‘the seat of my pants’ was a more accurate gauge.
And I completely get the ‘too long and tall thing’ It killed my knees to drive long distances in mine.. after a couple years, I built a new seat mount system that moved the seat back about seven more inches.
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